


the ideology of peak performance

by statusquo_ergo



Series: a fire in the sage's mansion [5]
Category: Suits (US TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Season/Series 05
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-21
Updated: 2018-06-21
Packaged: 2019-05-26 15:35:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15003953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/statusquo_ergo/pseuds/statusquo_ergo
Summary: It's not that Mike doesn't respect Harvey's work ethic, just that he might be taking things a little too far this time.





	the ideology of peak performance

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Hi... I saw your post, saying you open for request? If it’s ok, could u please write about Harvey being super busy and always forgot to eat so while he was in a meeting with another associates (whom Mike help him to choose), Mike stroll in his office and shoo everyone away and he demand Harvey to sit and eat and take a break for solid 2 hour and now all the associates worship Mike because only he can make Harvey Specter listen to someone. (Of course he listen to Mike, he’s his goddamn boyfriend)
> 
> This fic very vaguely takes place sometime after “[Mea Culpa](https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/view_episode_scripts.php?tv-show=suits&episode=s05e08)” (s05e08), which is when Mike becomes a junior partner, and uses a little bit of what all is going on in “[Uninvited Guests](https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/view_episode_scripts.php?tv-show=suits&episode=s05e09)” (s05e09), but it may as well be set outside the timeline because I’m being _very_ cavalier about all the ins and outs of the situation.

“Natasha, I need you to draft a tender offer to give to McKernon. Devin, I need a read on what Louis is doing with Soloff, I don’t trust them spending so much time together. I have to figure out how we’re going to approach Gianopolous for this equity funding, but in the meantime—”

“Alright, everybody out.”

Harvey jerks his head around to the door as Mike waves the associates out into the hall, smiling charitably and pointing them back to the bullpen to scurry off with terrified looks on their faces.

“Mike,” Harvey scolds, “that was important.”

“Uh-huh,” Mike drones, “and considering the fact that they’re working for you on my recommendation, I have every faith and confidence in them to be up to the task, but as for you, it’s time for lunch.”

Scowling, Harvey pointlessly shuffles his notes on the McKernon case, picking up the stack of papers and dropping the edge against his desk to level it.

“I don’t have time for that right now.”

“Yeah, have you noticed that you ‘haven’t had time for that’ for almost two weeks?”

Out of the corner of his eye, Harvey catches Natasha and Devin lurking just around the corner, trying to peer into his office for some idea of what’s going on; it doesn’t say much for any of them that Donna, who must have noticed, is feigning ignorance to let them hang around.

“Would you like some popcorn?” he asks loudly. Donna winces, reaching out to turn the intercom off with a soft click, and Natasha and Devin run back to their desks as Harvey returns his attentions to Mike.

“You know how complicated this is,” he insists. “Hardman and Soloff are trying to work together to undermine Jessica and I have to stop them, before they can do…whatever they’re planning on doing, and I don’t have time to slack off.”

“And Natasha knows how to write a tender offer, and Louis likes Devin well enough to vent to him about Soloff, and you’ll be fine,” Mike says darkly. “But you had half a protein smoothie for dinner at eleven thirty last night and about two sips of coffee for breakfast at five this morning, and I personally would prefer for you to eat something solid of your own free will before you wind up in the hospital on a saline drip.”

Harvey glares up at him.

“And you thought the best way to get me to go to lunch with you was to subvert my authority in front of the associates?”

Closing his eyes and pressing his hands together in front of his face as though he’s praying for guidance, or maybe just patience, Mike sighs wearily.

“They work here too,” he says. “They know what’s going on. You gave them their assignments. You were about to start rambling about how frustrating it is that you don’t know what Hardman is up to. Yes you were,” he reprimands when Harvey opens his mouth to object, “you’ve been bitching at me about it all week, and you haven’t taken the time to actually sit down and eat a real meal for so long that it’s starting to demolish your brain-to-mouth filter around people who _don’t_ know you well enough not to take it personally.”

Harvey purses his lip resentfully. He didn’t have to put it quite like _that._

“Please,” Mike tries again. “Take a break. Eat something that’s actually food.”

Harvey looks down at the papers in front of him, at the words beginning to jump around and run together. Alright, so _maybe_ Mike has a point that he could use a real meal.

But this case, though…

“What are the associates going to think if they see me slacking off?” he challenges, looking up and stabbing his finger against the papers. “The future of this firm is on the line, and you want me to disappear for an hour?”

“Try again,” Mike says dryly. “The associates respect the hell out of you. You hold their fates in your hands. You’re not going to ruin your image by _eating lunch._ ”

His every instinct tells him to keep pushing back, but Harvey recognizes that determined look in Mike’s eyes; continuing to turn him down will probably end up wasting more time than just giving in.

“You’re not leaving until I say yes, are you?”

Mike sets his hands on his hips. “Damn right I’m not,” he says. “Two hours. You want to go somewhere snobby and pretentious, fine, we’ll get some wagyu at Nobu Fifty-Seven, but I need you to stop. Working.”

Sucking his teeth, Harvey lowers his gaze back to the papers, skimming the notes again. He doesn’t want to just hand this one over, but Mike’s making a lot of sense, and Harvey isn’t typically in the business of turning down a good deal.

“Give me ten minutes,” he says, making a show of focusing his attention on his work as he presses his index finger down under the first line of text.

“Five,” Mike counters.

Smartass.

“Seven,” Harvey mumbles, drawing his finger down the line.

“ _Five._ ”

Harvey smirks.

“Get out of my office.”

“I’m timing you!”

Shaking his head, Harvey waves him off and does his best to concentrate on his reading. It’s a pointless exercise, given that there’s nothing in there he doesn’t already know, nothing he needs to reference or show to anyone else, but Mike’s given him five minutes and he’s going to take them, god dammit, so there.

_McKernon Motors, last sale, $38.83, change net percentage…_

Three minutes later, his boredom is too intense to justify wasting any more time.

“Donna,” he says as he breezes out into the hall, “hold my calls for the next hour.”

“Two hours!”

“You got it, Mike,” Donna says. Harvey glares between the two of them, but Donna only smirks as Mike presses his hand to Harvey’s back and steers him toward the reception desk.

“You’re lucky I like you,” Harvey mutters as they wait for the elevator to arrive.

“Luck has nothing to do with it,” Mike retorts. Harvey bumps their shoulders together and makes a meager effort to refrain from smiling like an idiot.

Then the elevator doors open, and Harvey slips his hands into his pockets and looks up at the ceiling as Mike presses the button for the ground floor.

“Those associates are never going to respect me again.”

Mike tips his head from side to side. “Yeah,” he agrees, “but they’ll definitely listen to me. I mean. I’m the only one who can get the great Harvey Specter to listen to reason.”

Harvey clicks his tongue. “You think you know reason better than I do?”

Mike hums as they walk out into the lobby. “I think you’re the one who thought it was a good idea to hire a fraud.”

“You’re never gonna let that go, are you?”

“I have a weakness for the classics.”

Pushing the front doors open with a grin, Harvey rests his hand comfortably on Mike’s back as they walk down the front steps.

“I hope you know you’re paying for this,” he says.

Mike rolls his eyes dramatically. “And yet everyone thinks _I’m_ the kept man.”

Harvey shrugs. “Must be those soft features.”

“You’re never gonna let me live that one down, are you?”

As he shakes his head, it dawns on Harvey that despite the fact that the McKernon proposal hasn’t crossed his mind in nearly ten minutes, nor the shady goings on between Soloff and Hardman, the world has somehow managed not to end, all things moving on more or less as they were yesterday, and as they probably will tomorrow. The situation is muddled, the deals uncertain and the work still very much in progress, but he’s going out for a long lunch at a fancy restaurant with his partner, whom he loves very much, and who he suspects loves him in return, and the work will still be there when he’s through.

Anyway, in the long run, some things are more important than business.

**Author's Note:**

> “I could pull that off. I’ve got soft features.”  
> —Mike, “[Tricks of the Trade](https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/view_episode_scripts.php?tv-show=suits&episode=s01e06)” (s01e06)
> 
> A tender offer is an offer to purchase some or all of a shareholder’s shares in a corporation, which is one of the ways a company can “go private.” Taking McKernon Motors private is Mike’s idea for how to stop Hardman, proposed to Harvey in “Uninvited Guests.”
> 
> [Nobu 57](https://www.noburestaurants.com/fifty-seven/home/) is a famous restaurant at fifty-seventh street between Fifth and Sixth. Pearson Specter Litt is at fifty-third between Lexington and Third, about four blocks away.
> 
> “Luck has nothing to do with it” is a quote from about two dozen different movies and television shows Mike might be referring to, but I didn’t have the heart to narrow it down.


End file.
